


the second date

by alistaircousland



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, Fluff, Fluff fluffity fluff fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, and the comfort is being cuddled by remus and then james, balinese!Remus, but the hurt is lily having period cramps, desi!james, with sirius cooking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27560245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alistaircousland/pseuds/alistaircousland
Summary: JAMES POTTERLily Evans: hey jamesLily Evans: this is remusLily Evans: and lily will absolutely kill me if she found this but i’ll bother with it laterLily Evans: but long story short she’s feeling not well the whole day so me and her will have to call raincheck on our double dateLily Evans: i swear we’re not ghosting u guys, if she wasn’t unwell we’ll already be picking out clothes i promise uLily Evans: anyway please tell sirius i’m sorry i couldn’t tell him myself, idk where’s my phoneLily Evans: i’m ok but i can’t leave the house knowing she’s sick so yeahLily Evans: BUT DON’T PANIC THIS IS NOT A DEATH OR ALIVE SITUATION I KNOW YOU’RE PANICKINGLily Evans: so anyway. raincheck pls and we’re so sorryLily Evans: if u or sirius don’t hear anything from me rest assured lily will have me strangled tonight for using her phone to text uLily Evans: ta
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	the second date

Remus woke up with a smile this Saturday morning (by morning, it was already 9am, but no one need to know that). Tonight, he’d be going out for a second date with Sirius, which was also a double date with Lily and James. It would be casual, just to a pub across town, and considering that they had spent some time together before Sirius decided to ask Remus out and Lily did to James, he was sure tonight would be fun. With more hand holding with Sirius and stolen glances—which Lily would do with James, too.

The happy thought carried through his shower, taking extra time to clean every nook and cranny in his body, shaved his week-old stubble (he could see Sirius pouting, because that man mentioned that he loved a little scruff on Remus. Oh well), and when he’s finally dressed, knocked on Lily’s door.

When there was no answer after a minute, he opened the door slowly. The only traumatising thing he’d see would be Lily having someone naked on her bed, which was impossible since she had come home at 11pm from work last night, so Remus didn’t mind if he saw Lily in any other form. They had slept together a few times anyway, it wasn’t like he didn’t know her body.

As he stepped through the room, however, he decided seeing Lily naked would’ve been preferable than the sight he was met with. Lily was huddled in a foetal position under her blanket, her arms clutching a pillow in front of her stomach, and shivering.

“First day?” Remus asked, which Lily only nodded.

“When I came back home last night. Fuck, Rem, this hurts so much.” Lily whimpered, almost sobbing. Remus wiped his face with his hand.

“Okay, okay. I’ll get you tea and toast, do you think you can handle that?” He saw Lily’s red hair moving up and down on her pillow, so he took that as a yes and went to the kitchen to prepare tea and toast for Lily. He also took out a thermos—his mom’s insistence of _you’d never know when you’d need a thermos,_ nak—to put some warm water in case Lily wants something bland to drink. 

He moved in autopilot—it wasn’t the first time he saw Lily in misery due to her menstruation—to pour her tea in a very big mug, give it two teaspoons of sugar, and stirred it that no crumbles of sugar were visible anymore, while making his in a normal-sized mug with double the amount of sugar in hers. He took out the toasts as soon as they jumped from the toaster, put some unsalted butter on top, and finally the warm water thermos, with a cup just small enough it won’t scream at Lily like Remus was forcing her to drink enough water. (He was.) He faintly heard the sound of Lily puttering about in the bathroom and ripping plastic that he guessed was her putting on a new pad.

He carried the knickknacks on an empty picture frame that he decided will further on be their makeshift tray. When he kicked Lily’s door open, she was settling on the bed after her bathroom run and made grabby hands to the breakfast in Remus’ hand.

“You are an angel, Wolfy McWolf, I love you.” Lily muttered between bites on her toast and Remus smiled from behind his tea.

“I know what a menace you are when you’re bleeding out of your uterus, I’m just trying to postpone it as long as I can.” Remus teased. Lily gave him a playful shove—which barely shoved him at all—and offered a bite from her toast, which Remus accepted with a big bite.

“If you want to take a shower and need my help, just ask, alright?” Remus said as Lily grabbed her big mug of tea and clinked it with Remus’.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Rem.” Lily put her hand on Remus’ now-smooth cheek and caressed it. “I thought Sirius liked his men scruffy.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been itchy. He can wait until they grow again, it won’t take long.” Remus shrugged. “Talking about postponing, should we tell the boys we can’t go?”

“What? No, of course we’re going! This little shit,” Lily motioned to where her stomach was under the blanket, “won’t stop us from meeting them! This is only the second date, come on.”

“Lils, we know from history if your period hits hard, _it hits hard_.” Remus stage-whispered.

“But I don’t want it to!” Lily grumbled. “Fuck, I wish I had a dick instead. No monthly bleeding and pain.”

“True. Not to mention if you make a baby, you can run from the responsibility too.”

“Lupin! You will not run away from your responsibility if you knocked up a lady!”

“It doesn’t have to be a lady to knock up! There are men and nonbinaries with vaginas too!”

“Fuck, you’re right. Still, you’re not running away from whoever it is you knocked up. I’ll hunt you down.”

“I solemnly swear I will not run away from my hypothetical baby carrier.” Remus held up his palm, imitating Sirius and James whenever they annoyed him and Lily with their ‘ _I solemnly swear I am up to no good_ ’ incantation.

“Fuck, I really hope I’ll feel better tonight.” Lily muttered, putting her mug down on the table as she moved to snuggle under her blanket. “Cuddle me until then?”

Remus put his mug next to Lily’s and laid next to her, on top of the blanket, and wrapped his arms around Lily. “You never needed to ask.”

\---

When Remus woke up again, the clock on Lily’s alarm said it was fifteen past two, and they should be meeting James and Sirius in two hours at the front for an early dinner before going out to the pub. He looked down at Lily, who was still huddled in his arms, face grimacing as her cramps probably still hold a rein against her body. He sighed. There was no way they could go tonight. He grabbed a phone that was on the table and unlocked it with his fingerprint. The phone turned out to be Lily’s, but he wasn’t sure where was his, so he’ll have to take Lily’s wrath later.

He opened the _Messages_ app and pressed James’ contact.

**JAMES POTTER**

_Lily Evans: hey james_

_Lily Evans: this is remus_

_Lily Evans: and lily will absolutely kill me if she found this but i’ll bother with it later_

_Lily Evans: but long story short she’s feeling not well the whole day so me and her will have to call raincheck on our double date_

_Lily Evans: i swear we’re not ghosting u guys, if she wasn’t unwell we’ll already be picking out clothes i promise u_

_Lily Evans: anyway please tell sirius i’m sorry i couldn’t tell him myself, idk where’s my phone_

_Lily Evans: i’m ok but i can’t leave the house knowing she’s sick so yeah_

_Lily Evans: BUT DON’T PANIC THIS IS NOT A DEATH OR ALIVE SITUATION I KNOW YOU’RE PANICKING_

_Lily Evans: so anyway. raincheck pls and we’re so sorry_

_Lily Evans: if u or sirius don’t hear anything from me rest assured lily will have me strangled tonight for using her phone to text u_

_Lily Evans: ta_

\---

At some time after three Lily felt a little better to take a shower, so Remus set up the Ikea stool he had whenever his joints were too inflamed for him to stand up too long under the shower for Lily to use and warmed up the shower before letting Lily into the bathroom. He was looking for some tiger balm or eucalyptus oil that his mom absolutely left around in the flat the last time she was here to put on Lily’s tummy and back when he heard knocks on the front door.

To his surprise, James and Sirius were standing outside with two bags of groceries in Sirius’ hands. “We got your texts and considering this will be the last time we see you alive, we decided we’ll put you out of your misery and make some curry for Red.” That was Sirius, showing the grocery bags in his hands, while James just grinned _really_ wide.

“Right… is this too late to tell you she has tummy ache so curry wouldn’t be the best food?” Remus wondered.

“Oh, no, of course not Indian curry!” James spluttered. “How could you be so confident in our cooking skill?”

Remus squinted his eyes as he stared at James up and down, conveying his point of _maybe because you’re Indian, James_. He let them in anyway with a wave of his hand and stepping back.

“Remus, my favourite wolf, I can’t even boil water for my own good.” James ruffled his hair, answering as if he could read his mind. He probably could. “Rest assured, this is the Japanese curry thing I know you guys love. They sell instant packets of the thing so I hope this will end well.”

“Right, we don’t want to burn your kitchen.” Sirius piped as he put down his grocery bag on the small island, James following suit. “Speaking of, where’s Red?”

“Taking a shower. We’ve been cuddling the whole day until she felt she was good enough to get out of bed.” Remus said, sitting on the island stool as he watched James read the instructions on the curry packet and Sirius unloading their groceries—chopped beef, carrots, celery, potatoes, onion, and rice—on the counter.

“Do you guys know how to make that?” Remus squinted his eyes again. “I don’t think Lily will appreciate you burning down our place.”

“Who’s burning down our place?” Lily asked, coming out of the hallway with Remus’ oversized Durham shirt and a pair of board shorts. “Oh. Shite, why are they here?”

“I… might have asked for raincheck from your phone an hour ago and somehow they decided it’s an invitation to make dinner?” Remus explained. James only gave a sheepish wave as Sirius continued to chop the vegetables in peace, as if this was normal. Remus didn’t even realise Sirius had already rummaged the drawers for their cutting board and knife already.

“Right…” Lily sat on the stool next to Remus. “I hope you guys aren’t making anything spicy. I’m already nauseous as it is.”

“Nauseous?” James raised an eyebrow. Lily only nodded as she put a hand on her stomach. “Yeah, I always get nauseous in the first and second day of my period. Speaking of…,” she nudged Remus, “sofa cuddle?”

Remus looked at James that just realised the tummy ache she was feeling was her menstruation and not some stomach bug as Remus had alluded, then back to Lily who was still nudging at him. “Um…,” he gulped, “what if you and James go? I’ll help Sirius with cooking. I don’t want the apartment to burn.”

Lily darted her green eyes to James who was blushing at Remus’ suggestion. She smiled. “Yeah, okay. But he’s gotta watch _my_ show.”

“Of course!” James basically sprinted around the counter as Lily hopped down the stool as they head to the living room—which was a glorified way of calling the sofa and the television right behind where Lily and Remus had sat—and Remus rounded the counter to Sirius.

“Hi,” Remus said, as he picked up the curry packet to read the instructions like James had. “Anything I can help you with?”

Sirius looked up from the vegetables for the first time and met Remus’ eyes. He smiled, and Remus couldn’t help but smile back. “Hey, babe.” Yeah, he loved it when Sirius called him that. But then Sirius frowned. “Your stubble is gone.”

“Yeah, I shaved it this morning.” Remus gave a lopsided smile as he took the rice pack from the counter. “I’ll make the rice as an apology.”

“You know how to do it?” Sirius asked.

“ _Babe_ , my mother will take my name off from her will if I didn’t know.” Remus rolled his eyes, cutting open the pack with a knife as he poured the rice on a rice cooker pot, then moving to the sink to rinse the rice.

“Right, I forgot she’s from Bali.” Sirius cleared his throat as he stepped back from the cutting board. “Where do you keep your pans and pots?”

“Yup. She will still have _my_ head if I so much can’t make rice. Drawer to your left.” Remus dried the pot and put it in the rice cooker, pressing the _cook_ button and dried his own hands. “Anything left to do?”

Sirius moved to the mentioned drawer and pulled a pot out, then turning around to put it on the burner. “I mean, James’ mum is Indian but he can’t so much as differentiate between regular ginger and blue ginger, so forgive me if I have low expectations in the kitchen.” They heard James’ affronted ‘ _Hey!_ ’ from the sofa but Sirius continued on, “Oil?”

Remus motioned to the overhead drawer on Sirius’ right, which the other man opened and took out a bottle of cooking oil. They didn’t say anything as Sirius stirred the vegetables and beef on the pan, Remus watching him with a small smile on his face.

The four of them had met at a bar where Remus didn’t want to go, but was practically dragged by Lily, when he met Sirius, trying to order the same beer as Remus to look smooth but ended up grimacing the whole experience. He remembered Sirius with his stupid high heels that he removed halfway to his and James’ flat and proceeded to walk home barefoot, while James dragged Remus and Lily by their hands under the guise of ‘ _we live very close and you guys will be pill-killed like that Sherlock episode if you take an Uber this late_ ’ and the rest is history. As Sirius added water to the pot, reduced the heat and covered the pot, Remus raised a hand to Sirius’ cheek, caressing it softly with his thumb.

Sirius stepped back from the burner and moved to Remus, putting his hands on Remus’ waist as Remus wrapped his own arms around Sirius’ neck. “Hey you,” the raven-haired man said.

Remus still had the stupid smile on his face. “Hey. I’m really sorry we didn’t go out tonight.”

“It’s really fine. Better than forcing Lily to go out in her current state.” Sirius bopped his nose to Remus’, which elicited a giggle from the other man. “This is also nice.”

“Yeah. I like watching you cook.” Remus lowered one hand to Sirius’ chest and faintly scrunched his shirt in his hand. “I—can we kiss?”

Sirius only snorted as his answer as he closed the distance between them, placing chaste kisses on Remus’ lips. “You don’t need to ask, babe.”

“I know. I like to ask, though.” Remus said as he kissed Sirius again, pressing his body against Sirius’, making him step back until his back was pressed against the island.

“Mmm, I guess I can live with that.” Sirius chuckled as he placed one last kiss on Remus’ lips. “However, we have a curry to tend to.”

Remus stepped back and raised his hands. “Lead the way, Chef Black.” Remus swore there was a blush adorning Sirius’ otherwise pale skin, but he knew the other man would never admit it, so he let him free from teasing. For now.

Sirius added the curry packet to the boiled vegetables and beef, stirring it for a while then placing a timer for five minutes, but this time he continued to stir the pot while his other hand grabbed Remus’. “Hi again.”

“Hi, _sayang_.” Remus kissed Sirius’ cheek. “The rice would probably take ten more minutes, would that be fine to the curry?”

“’ _Sayang_ ’? But yeah, ten minutes would be fine.” Sirius swayed their joined hands back and forth, slowly as to not hit them to the counter.

“Indonesian for _love_. My mom calls, er—called—my dad that.” Remus cleared his throat. His dad had passed away a few years ago, but it still took him time to use the right tense. He looked down at his feet before meeting Sirius’ eyes. Then he realised what he might have insinuated. “I—It’s not a declaration, just a nickname.”

“Ah.” Sirius raised his hand to his lips and kissed it. “I like it.” He smiled. Remus only gave him a pointed look to the pot he was haphazardly stirring as he laughed. “Okay, okay, eyes on the fire, got it.”

When the timer went off, Sirius killed the heat and they moved to the living room, opting to sit on the floor in front of Lily and James instead of suffocating the other couple. Lily had put _The Good Place_ on the telly, her body completely hidden under the comforter she stole from Remus’ room, with James’ arm around her shoulder. Sirius had teased James about that as they settled down, which made James gave Sirius the finger and Sirius merely laughed. Despite that, Sirius copied James as he wrapped his arm around Remus’ shoulder, then throwing his legs on top of Remus’ for good measure. Remus rolled his eyes at the blatant one-upping James but leaned to Sirius’ embrace, placing a kiss on Sirius’ clothed collarbone.

“Thanks for coming. You, and James too.” Remus murmured against Sirius’ neck. He could feel Sirius’ head turning and a whisper of a kiss on top of his head. He decided to close his eyes, taking in the peace within Sirius’ arms despite knowing they had to rise in a few minutes to serve dinner, but for now, embraced by Sirius, felt like his personal heaven. And he’s not complaining.

**Author's Note:**

> "nak" = abbreviation for "anak" - lit. child or kid in Indonesian/Malay/Tagalog. Affectionate nickname from an elder to youngster, doesn't have to be family.
> 
> Kudos & comments will be greatly appreciated! uwu
> 
> (Also I'm sorry if they don't sound too Brit--I tried. I'm not Brit.)


End file.
